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irma's blog

We got up at 6am because Herk warned us that the Great Wall is going to
be crowded as it is a National Holiday and we should go early to dodge
the crowds. We got ready and got in the car ready for the Great
Wall of China which is a 1hour drive away from down town Beijing though
beautiful mountains. It was really funny because Stacy was
looking through a picture book of the Great Wall while we were driving
along side it...only realizing that the rest of us are already taking
our own pictures and talking about it!
we got there at about 8 and by that time there were already tour buses
full of people. Herk and Maggie has been on the wall too many
times already and decided to stay outside and get foot masagges and tea
while we go galavanting. There were so many people we ended up
walking at the brisk speed of turtle for so long because of all the
tourist. One by one they dropped out and eventually we outclimed and
outwalked the chinese tourists! It was stunning and the view was
great and the way was steep. Stacy bought medals and had our
names encarved on them (at the entrace of the gate)... so that is when
we decided to have our prizegiving.

So we arrived in Beijing at about 10am Monday morning. Herk and
Maggie were really tired and went straight to bed in the hotel.. Stacy,
Al Kuchina and I went to the forbidden city and spent our day
there...LOVED IT!!!!! It is really amazing, the forbidden city
was the residence of the emperors of China and was built in 1406.
It's big and amazing. Surounded by a huge wall. Bei
means North and and jing means capital, thus the north capital city of
China. For dinner we had Beijing duck (delicious) and also really
really fresh sashimi!!! Herk ordered sole fish. then the
waiter came with a live fish on a tray and Herk approved (kind of like
Lobster and wine). 5 minutes later the waiter brought the fish
back uncooked but his meat sliced away from the bones just lying on the
body of the fish. it was still breathing and it's tail was
slightly moving but everybody stuck their chopsticks in and started
feasting as the fish was looking at us... I waited until Nemo stopped
breathing before I had some.. convincing myself that it is less
cruel.... BUT BELIEVE ME IT WAS ONE GOOD TASTING LITTLE FLIPPER!!!!

So
Tomorrow we were supposed to get on the train at 19:28 and leave for
the fabulous city of Beijing. We are were almost finished packing
and really exited to go! The train takes 12 hours so we were
supposed too arrive in beijing train station on Tuesday morning.

Al, Stacy and I had a lunch date with our favourite couple in China, Herk and Maggie.

Herk
is the most spontanious person i have ever met, last time we had lunch
with them we ended up going to Hangzhou so half way through our late
lunch we decided we're all going home and fet our bags and leave that
evening! At 20:00 we left for the train station and sold our
tickets for tomorrow and took Herks' car there. It was a long
drive but we were on our way...

I can't wait....... On Monday the 3rd of October we're going to Beijing. So there will be lots of really cool pics on my site soon!!! We are taking the train there. Well China is a big place (like all of you hopefully already know) so it will take us 12hours by train and we'll arrive there at 7:30 Tuesday morning! We're all going.... Hennie, Coco, Chris, Al, Stacy and myself and we'll meet a friend from Taiwan there, Jamie. We're gonna go see The great wall of China, Tianimen Square, The temple of heaven, The Forbidden City, Mao tse Tungs' mosileum and the future site of the greatest failure in the history of the Olimpic Games!! I'm so excited!!! I downloaded a few pics so you can see what I'm looking forward to... here they are!!!!